Spanish IPA Chart — International Phonetic Alphabet for Spanish

A complete IPA chart for Spanish with audio on every symbol — all five vowels, the consonants, the two R sounds, and the diphthongs. The groups below mirror the Spanish phoneme keyboard built into the SpeechGen editor. Whether you are learning Spanish, doing IPA transcription of Spanish, or comparing Spain and Latin American pronunciation, every phoneme here includes an example word you can hear.

Spanish IPA Chart — Vowels

Spanish has just five pure vowel sounds, and each is always pronounced the same way — there are no long/short pairs and no schwa reduction as in English. This is why Spanish vowels are the easiest part of the Spanish phonetic chart for learners.

Spanish IPA Chart — Consonants

Spanish has 19 consonant phonemes. A few differ from English spelling: [ɲ] is ñ, [x] is the j/g sound in jota, [θ] is Castilian c/z (see dialects below), and [ʎ] is ll. The letters b, d, g soften to the approximants [β ð ɣ] between vowels.

The Spanish R — [r] vs [ɾ]

Spanish has two R phonemes, and the difference changes meaning. The single tap [ɾ] is a quick flick of the tongue (like the American tt in butter); the trill [r] is the famous rolled R. Compare the minimal pairs:

pero [ˈpe.ɾo] perro [ˈpe.ro] caro [ˈka.ɾo] carro [ˈka.ro]

R is trilled [r] when spelled rr, or at the start of a word (rosa); everywhere else single r is the tap [ɾ].

Spanish Phonemes Chart

A phoneme is a unit of sound that can change meaning — not a letter. Spanish spelling is close to its phonemes, but not identical: the letter h is silent, c maps to two sounds, and b/v are one phoneme. The full Spanish phoneme chart has 24 phonemes: 5 vowels and 19 consonants.

The voiced stops b d ɡ have soft approximant allophones [β ð ɣ] between vowels — same phoneme, different realization. Castilian counts [θ] and [ʎ] as separate phonemes; most of Latin America merges them into [s] and [ʝ] (see dialects below).

Spanish Phonetic Transcription — How It Works

Phonetic transcription writes a word by its sounds instead of its spelling, using IPA symbols between slashes or brackets. Because Spanish orthography is so regular, Spanish phonetic transcription is largely predictable once you know the rules.

Take hola: the h is silent, so it is transcribed /ˈo.la/ — stress on the first syllable, two clean vowels. A few more examples:

Slashes / / mark a phonemic transcription (meaning-distinguishing sounds); square brackets [ ] mark a phonetic one with allophonic detail like [β ð ɣ].

Spanish Phonetic Alphabet vs Spanish IPA — What's the Difference?

People search for both terms, and they usually mean the same thing. "Spanish phonetic alphabet" is the everyday English name; "Spanish IPA" is the precise academic term. Both refer to writing Spanish sounds with International Phonetic Alphabet symbols — the chart on this page.

One important disambiguation: this is not the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie…). That is a spelling alphabet for radio — in Spanish, words like Antonio, Burgos, Carmen are used to spell out letters. If that is what you need, it is a different tool entirely; the IPA chart here is about sounds, not letter names.

Spanish (Spain) vs Latin American IPA

The biggest IPA differences between dialects come down to three features. Each pair below is the same word — first a Castilian voice (Spain), then a Latin American voice:

• Distinción vs seseo — Spain pronounces c (before e/i) and z as [θ]; almost all of Latin America uses [s], making casa and caza homophones.
• Yeísmo — most speakers merge ll [ʎ] into y [ʝ]; in Argentina/Uruguay it becomes [ʒ] or [ʃ] (sheísmo).
• S-aspiration — in the Caribbean and southern Spain, syllable-final s often weakens to [h]: estás → [ehˈtah].

Convert Spanish to IPA & Hear It

Want the IPA for your own Spanish text — and to hear it spoken? SpeechGen's editor has a built-in phoneme keyboard that generates the IPA from selected text automatically, then reads it aloud in a native voice. It's the fastest way to go from Spanish spelling to IPA transcription and audio.

1. Open speechgen.io, type your Spanish text, and pick a Spanish voice — Castilian (Enrique, Lucía) or Latin American (Miguel, Mía).

2. Select a word, click the </> SSML toggle in the toolbar, then click Phoneme.

   

3. The Phoneme (IPA) · es-ES modal opens with the full Spanish keyboard and auto-fills the IPA for your selected word. Hit Listen to preview, then Insert to drop the <phoneme alphabet="ipa"> tag into your text and convert it to speech.

   

You can also override a voice's default pronunciation. Force Castilian [θ] or Latin American [s] on the same word — here caza, both voiced by Enrique:

Spanish IPA Chart — Free PDF Download

Prefer a printable version? Download the complete Spanish phonetic alphabet PDF — one page with every vowel, consonant, and dialect note, ready to print for the classroom or your desk.

📄 Download the Spanish IPA Chart (PDF) — free, one page, print-ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

Para hablantes de español

Esta es una tabla completa del alfabeto fonético español (AFI) con audio en cada símbolo: las cinco vocales, las consonantes, las dos erres y los diptongos. Pulsa cualquier símbolo del gráfico para escucharlo. Incluye las diferencias entre el español de España (distinción [θ], ll [ʎ]) y el de Hispanoamérica (seseo, yeísmo). Con la herramienta de SpeechGen puedes convertir cualquier texto en español a voz y obtener su transcripción AFI automáticamente.